Contributor.

Nathan Rauh-BieriProgram Coordinator of Education at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Nathan Rauh-Bieri is Program Coordinator of Education at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, where he is responsible for supporting international training programs for professionals in emerging markets, liaising with international partner universities and institutions, and exploring new educational projects, partnerships, and models. Nathan holds a master’s from Duke Divinity School and a bachelor’s from Wheaton College (IL).

Posts by Nathan Rauh-Bieri

The self-determination that characterizes many Detroit entrepreneurs is a powerful paradigm for emerging markets, say authors Amy Gillett and Nathan Rauh-Bieri, and would-be providers of social entrepreneurship interventions should note a lesson learned: Make sure what you are offering is requested by the community, customized for the community and implemented with the community.

In the final article in a six-part series on entrepreneurship's role in women’s economic empowerment, Nathan Rauh-Bieri highlights the experiences of five entrepreneurs in the year-long Vital Voices GROW Fellowship. The women reflect on what they learned from the training, and evaluate its usefulness to their businesses and their leadership development. Their experiences provide six lessons about how to optimize the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education.

The VV GROW Fellowship invests in women business owners in emerging economies, supporting them through three training stages: 1) virtual training, 2) in-person training, and 3) growth services and support. Here, four business owners talk about how, in the final stage of the fellowship, they implemented and revised their action plans and evaluated progress toward their growth goals.

Five years after protesters overthrew the Ben Ali regime and sparked the Arab Spring, an arid employment landscape (62.3 percent of college graduates are without work, as are 37.6 percent of young people) have fueled renewed protests. And yet, despite promises from the current government, jobs have not arrived. Is entrepreneurship not the panacea it is often made out to be?

As part of his continuing series, Nathan Rauh-Bieri checks back in with participants in the year-long Vital Voices GROW Fellowship. He learned that, in a world growing more "virtual" by the day, there's still plenty of value in entrepreneurs meeting face to face.

What appears to be truly disruptive is an education model in which students are forced to go beyond “business as usual” and build models where everyone can play a role in creating a more inclusive economy.

In this, the third in a series of articles about women entrepreneurs participating in the year-long Vital Voices GROW Fellowship, they speak in glowing terms of the virtual learning part of their training. Next up, they'll gather for in-person training.

For the next 15 months, the author will follow five women participating in the year-long Vital Voices GROW Fellowship as they undergo training while simultaneously juggling work and home responsibilities. The point is to, at the end, form some conclusions about what training practices bear replicating.

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